The Story You Tell Matters

Notice how Starbucks doesn’t start right away by telling us how good their coffee is and why their beans are better.

They start by telling a story about connection and belonging as they did back when the company began to expand in the ’90s.

The facts are left for later.

When they arrived on the scene, Starbucks changed how we thought and felt about drinking coffee forever. They showed us how they were different in every way from their competitors.

They gave us an experience that made us feel different too.

Starbucks created an expectation with pricing, interior design, mellow music, fresh pastries, and a great name.

The change was subtle.

They didn’t spell it out for us, they just allowed us to become complicit in their marketing and enabled us to tell ourselves a true story that we could believe.

And the result is that we were seduced.

We weren’t just buying coffee anymore we were buying how the process made us feel.

How you frame what you do matters.

Telling people why you are different is just the start.

Showing them how you are different is the goal.